Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me

We read this book when it was released in mid-July and immediately sent it on to our 17-year-old African-American grandson in central Los Angeles. He’s the best boy, but like many of us he can be brash and cocksure. We worry! Coates has written this book in the form of a letter to his 15-year-old son about what it means to be young and Black in America today. He remembers his life growing up in the mean streets of Baltimore and offers his profound understanding of the risks to the Black male body and not just from rogue police officers. We worry! Black lives do matter! Toni Morrison has said, "I've been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates."